


Uncommon Affection

by aderyn



Series: Compounds or Stars [2]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: 221b, Gen, what you don't say, what you say with your hands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-01
Updated: 2012-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-30 19:10:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/335119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aderyn/pseuds/aderyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“He doesn't like to use the word, except when it's other people.”</p><p>“I love the smell of crime scene in the morning. I love breathing.”</p><p>Sherlock considers the nature of…</p>
            </blockquote>





	Uncommon Affection

**Author's Note:**

> A companion 221B for "Uncommon Knowledge."

_There are only two_ _things_ _that are absolute_ _realities_ , _love and knowledge_ , a _nd you can't escape them. - Olive Schreiner_

 

He doesn't like to use the word, except when it's other people. Someone is in it, longs to be in it, has never been in it, has just about given up on it, has been betrayed by it, has fallen straight out of it, or, most significantly, has been moved to murder by it:  The legal term is _depraved heart_. It leads to depraved hands.

John doesn't seem to mind at all. He just comes out with it like it's no big deal. ( _I love that; it’s brilliant; I love it; fantastic; I love the smell of a crime scene in the morning. I love breathing.)_

It doesn’t sound like a disadvantage when he puts it that way.

Sherlock loves oxidation, skeletonisation, locked boxes, closed doors, and organic transformation in cordoned-off places.

Sherlock loves ash, arpeggios, left-handed stereoisomers, the chirality of hands.

***

John touches before he looks. Sherlock does the opposite:

Observation is a gift. But that's all he has to offer, and in return John offers up his phone, his gun, his injury, his aim, his negative capability, his moral radiance, his forbearance, his tolerance, his competence, his influence, his forgiveness, his ego, and his service.

He sets it all in his palms, and he holds them straight out. Why do people say _heart?_ It's the hands. They beat.

 


End file.
